Pandamonium Jacket

Pandamonium Jacket
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

My latest project for Etsy is this adorable Panda jacket by special request. Apparently the woman who requested it has a two year old who wants to be a panda for Halloween. How cute is that going to be? I also made some panda paw mittens to go with it. I added a drawstring to the hoodie, which I think will be a feature of all future hoodies. It's hard because I don't know anyone here with children I can try them on for fit and usefulness etc.

Personalized Crate Tag

Personalized Crate Tag
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

I sold my first crate tag! I put this up on Etsy a couple of days ago (of course with their choice of breed and name) and I sold one today. I still have to work out with the buyer what colors they want and all that, but yay!

Scallop skewers

Scallop skewers
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

For some reason I felt like cooking when I was back home so one night I made these Curried Scallop Kebabs. They turned out quite well for a first try.

River Walk

Mom and Bleys
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Back in Big Rapids mom and I took a walk on the now completed River Walk. I think its been done for a while, but I haven't seen it so it was new to me. It was a very nice walk and here near the end we saw some brave tubers (it was a little on the chilly side that day) getting into the water. You may not be aware, but Big Rapids is the tubing capital of Michigan. Impressed, aren't you?

Partay

Friends
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

There was, of course, the obligatory shin-dig at Jason's house. In this case it was a hoppin' fifth of July party. There was good food, melted chocolate, Henry's homebrew, and some guitar hero. Who could ask for more?

Foot prints

After North Muskegon we ventured over to Big Rapids to visit my family. It was nice to bed home and to see their freshly redone bathroom. They installed this cool faux skylight thing called a Sun Tunnel, that lets in a ton of natural light. One of the days we were in Big Rapids we turned right around and went back to the North Muskegon beach with my mom. We had a nice lunch and then walked along the beach for a while. The temperature was on the chilly side so all we really did was get our feet wet. Shortly after we got there the weather turned threatening so we only stayed for a while. Good thing, as just as soon as we got back to the car there was an absolute downpour.

Adventure

We also spent quite a bit of time over at the Wiles' house, hanging out, chatting, and playing some Guitar Hero. Once we took Bleys over...Adventure wasn't sure about that. Although very bold, walking right over and sniffing Bleys nose to nose. There was only one hissing incident, which was warranted because Bleys has a tendency to forget that Adventure is a cat and hence doesn't want to play in a dog type fashion. You may notice in the picture that Adventure has just been shaved. Being a long haired cat, it seems to make a big difference in the summer.

Pool Party

Another evening in North Muskegon we invited people over for a nice afternoon at Roland's parents' house. They have a pool and a grill, so it makes for a fun time, especially now that many of our friends have kids. One of the highlights was when Mila, our niece, discovered Bleys' crate. She decided that it was just about her size. There are some more pictures of her adventures with the crate including one where she tries to get in the crate with Bleys already in it. It was awesome.

Norman Rockwell at Jimmies

Our next stop was North Muskegon to visit Roland's family and many of our friends. It turns out that Erin, Laura's sister just opened an ice cream shop near by. Of course we had to stop by and see what it was all about. I managed to snap this picture, which I think looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. Behind the counter is Laura, who was working in order to give Erin the day off since it was her birthday. Jimmies has all sorts of ice cream options (both hard and soft serve) burgers that are cooked to order, and a cool potato spiral thingy which was good. So if you find yourself in Whitehall stop by for a sweet treat!

Baroo

While in Kalamazoo we stayed with Jason who allowed us to crash his place whenever we needed to. He has a nice big back yard which Bleys really appreciated. He got to run around a lot more than he does down here. There is a fun picture over at Flickr of him running. He's a little blurry, but I just feel like he was having a really good time after two days in the car. Here he discovers that Roland is up on the deck.

For Dr. J

Our first stop in Michigan was Kalamazoo. We took this picture to put Dr. J's mind at rest...there really is a Kalamazoo. :) We got a chance to visit with Jason, take a trip to campus and see all the changes, some good, some sad. They've shut down the awesome old school bowling alley in the Bernhard Center where I took bowling as one of my gym credits (hey, you've got have something fun when your other classes involve biology, chemistry, and physics). It is now "Textbook Alley" where they store all of the textbooks for sale.

Roland and Scotty

It's been a while huh? I've been to Michigan and back and been keeping myself busy since getting back last week. Roland has been super busy presenting at conferences and writing his article. He has finished a draft of the article, which is awesome and is hoping to be able to send it out for the fall submissions to journals.

So lets go back in time to when we left for Michigan. There was a flyball tournament in Orlando so we decided just to use that as a first leg and take off from there.

Roland got to run Scotty at this tournament and did a fantastic job. Scotty is not the easiest dog to run because he's pretty crazy, but I think that made Roland a good match, becuase he is perpetually calm. It was kind of funny to watch Roland standing there all completely calm holding Scotty who was yanking against his harness and generally doing his best to impersonate a rabid dog. Bleys shared a spot with another dog and did very well. He earned his FDX (500 points) and it was generally a good time. One of the other dogs earned her FM (5000 points) and I made her a crate tag to celebrate it. I thought it turned out really well.

Is there anything you can't do with PVC?

Step 1: Get discouraged

Step 2: Get encouragement from great friends (thanks Anne, Dr. J, and Janice)

Step 3: Have a great husband who finds light box plans on the internet (with super-awesome accompanying tutorial)

Step 4: Get crafty

Otter puppy

Otter puppy
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

After flyball yesterday a couple of us went over to a place not too far from practice that has a dog swim area. We had an awesome time and Bleys really enjoyed cooling off in the water. There are quite a few pictures over at flickr, including some using the series feature of my new camera. Bleys doesn't realize that he can jump into water so he didn't get a series. But Jubilee (black lab) and Jake (rat terrier) both have some fun shots of leaping for toys.

Pudding

Pudding
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Roland and I got home yesterday from another trip to Disney. We spent a little time there with his Mom, Dad, sister, niece, and brother-in-law. It was a nice trip, although on the hot side. We don't usually visit this time of year and I had forgotten just how hot it can get out there in the sun. I much prefer the cooler months for waling around so much.

This was taken at the restaurant in Italy. Mila got the chocolate pudding with bananas. At first she didn't realize there were bananas in there, but when she did she ditched the spoon and went face first into the dish. It was awesome.

Spring Fling

We attended another Flyball tournament this past weekend so I've been out of town since Friday. It was a really nice time although the facility just wasn't designed to hold that many people. The air conditioning really struggled to keep up, especially on Saturday when it was very sunny. The building is pretty much a metal box so it acts like an oven. Bleys didn't start racing until almost half-way through the day so he also struggled. He was pretty slow and we ended up spending quite some time out in the car's air conditioning at the end of the day. Sunday was better because at least part of the day was overcast, and Bleys started racing right off the bat. Bleys did very well for himself and I think everyone had a good time. Roland even ran Bleys for a couple of races! Although I'm not really sure how that went because I had to hide. If Bleys saw me, I'm pretty sure he would forget about the racing and try to come over and say hello instead! That's what happens at practice anyway.

Roland and I took quite a few pictures and for the most part they didn't turn out too badly. I'm still unhappy with the noise, but I'll have to experiment some more to see if changing some settings will allow a better result. A few of pictures are over at Flickr (click on the above picture), but most of them are at the Storm Riders website.

Now Bleys is at a new puppy boarding place and Roland and I are preparing to go up to Disney to see his parents, sister, niece, and brother-in-law. We will be back on Friday and then I'm going to just say no to traveling for a few weeks before we start our trek up to Michigan in mid-June.

Something You've Never Photographed Before

Something You've Never Photographed Before
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer: Take a photo of something you've never photographed before. This is a beaded flower I've been working on for some time. But I haven't yet finished the stem and haven't started the pistol/stamen. Then I have to figure out how to stiffen it so it won't droop. One book suggested some Future Acrylic Floor Wax, which I keep forgetting to look for when I'm at the store.

Round

Round
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer from yesterday (almost there!). Take a picture of something round.

Socks

Socks
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for Saturday: Take a picture of your or someone else's socks. These are my favorite socks. I find that socks are normally way to big for me. The heel ends up at my ankle when I first put them on, never mind after I've worn them all day. It seems silly to get so excited about socks, but I didn't realize how frustrating it was to have to rearrange them all the time.

Choice

P4280001
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for Friday: Make a decision. I chose to take a picture of my dinner options. The winner? The pizza dough on the bottom shelf. It is currently coming up to room temperature in the kitchen.

Dream

Dream
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer from Thursday: Take a picture of a dream. These are the shoes Anne wore at her wedding. She sent them to me a while later when I was taking a ballroom dance adult education class with Roland. My dream is to take regular lessons and learn how to dance.

Milestone

Milestone
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Still playing Photogamer catch-up: 04/21/2008 Take a picture of milestone. For a groan-worthy pic from one of my favorite Photogamers, click here.

Sproing

Sproing
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Roland took some really nice pictures at practice today. He also ran Bleys for the first half of practice. We should have left it that way since when I took over Bleys didn't do very well. I worry that we might be starting to see some of the exercise intolerance that accompanies a worsening of his heart murmur. We will just have to wait and see, but I'm trying to prepare myself for the fact that we might not be attending too many more tournaments. We can still play on Sundays, but if he stops enjoying it... There are some more pictures over in my Flickr stream if you're interested.

Surplus

Surplus
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

April 20th - Take a picture something you don't need. Well here is the pile of stuff I've been collecting for Goodwill. This prompt was appropriate because I've recently started on a bit of cleaning/sorting rampage. Roland and I have been toying with the idea of moving to be closer to his work and that got me thinking about all that goes into moving. So I've been slowly going through some of my stuff to purge. It doesn't feel like I've made much headway at this point, but I'm hoping to keep at it.

Antique

Antique
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

April 19th: Take a picture of something antique. I don't really have anything antique so this was a tough one. The best I could come up with were these books that belonged to my grand parents.

Band

Band
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

April 18th - Take a picture of a band. I had to think about this one for a long time before I came up with something. I chose some of my hair bands shown on the shower curtain rings that they live on.

Purchase

Purchase
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

April 17th: As many of you know I've been training Bleys to play flyball for the last year or so. We've done very well, Bleys has lost the extra weight that caused us to join up in the first place. He is running full runs without errors for the most part. However our major stumbling block has been actually catching the ball from the box. Given that he started out unable to catch a piece of food we're going alright, but I've been getting frustrated with my inability to teach Bleys what to do. At the suggestion of one of the flyball team member I ordered these balls. They are foam and semi-squishy. They are a little smaller than they claimed on the website, so that's a little harder, but overall I'm hopeful that these will help.

Journey

Journey
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer is back! I'm not sure what the issue was, but when I checked today it was up and running. So here are some of the back prompts. April 16th: Journey. This is the Trip Tik that Dave and I used when we drove up to Michigan. Not only does it have the usual map information and they nice AAA lady filled in the known construction zones, but it also gives you a nice description of what you will be driving through on each page. For instance between Chattanooga and Knoxville...leads through rolling farm and dairy country and some wooded hilly terrain with good views. Several lakes are situated only a few miles from this route.

Practice

Shutter Lag
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Today we had flyball practice and we took my new camera. I didn't have much time to take pictures but Roland managed to get in a few. Including this one that shows the camera has a little shutter lag. We also found out that Julie and John are engaged! Julie is one of the ladies on the team and John started coming to practice when they started dating. Congratulations John and Julie.

One of our long distance team members drove down for a Disc Dog competition yesterday and practice today, so after practice we all drove our dogs home and then met up for lunch. I took some pictures there, but they weren't very good (you can still check them out at flickr). I still have a lot to learn about my camera and taking good indoor shots appears to be one of them. I think I'm going to have to spend some time with the instruction manual and have a chat with my Dad about how to handle it.

Flurry

Hannah and Kodi
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

This weekend was a busy one! The flyball team I take classes from had a demo scheduled for Saturday. The SPCA Wildlife Center has a Walk for Wildlife every year to raise money and has a pet fair afterwards in the park. There were many booths of local rescues, pet stores, food vendors, and even Lowe's who brought out a cool project for the kids to build and take home with them. They had a lure course set up and a dog fun area. We also set up a little area and did a demonstration and had a few dogs come in and try it out.

It was a bit of a challenge getting the area fenced in (to prevent dogs from walking through and watering the equipment and because our dogs are off leash when they are running. We got it figured out though and the actual demo went okay. We only had four dogs, so we were just running doubles, but that was fine. Bleys was actually one of those dogs and he did a really great job. He still doesn't really do the catching thing, but he brought the ball back and really seemed to be running fast (for him). He even practiced some passing and didn't do too badly. Roland was super-awesome and ran to the store and then boxloaded for one of the teams. I don't know how I lucked out with such a great guy.

One of the big draws of this event is that Jeff Corwin comes and starts off the walk and this year he did a nice question and answer session with the kids. I thought that was pretty sweet and the kids really seemed to like it. All in all a nice day at the park.

Machine

Photogamer for Monday: Machine. I'm currently unable to access the Photogamer site to find out what each day's cue is. It seems that other people can still get to it though because they are posting for cues I haven't seen. Can any of you get to there?

Time for a fun new game.

Yesterday on my walk I tried out the zoom on my new camera, it has a whopping 20x optical zoom. So take a look at these sets of pictures, they were taken from the same spot only seconds apart. The only difference was the first was taken at full width, the second on full zoom. No digital zoom was used in this experiment.









There are couple more sets on my Flickr and you can really see the difference better at the larger photo sizes available there...So check it out.

Heron

It's been very nice weather here for the past couple of days. Temperatures in the 70's and a brisk breeze. Since I had this camera to try out I've been taking the dog on a long walk the past two mornings to try it out. Unfortunately we are having some internet connectivity issues so it's taken me longer than expected to put them up.

This one I took today. I was passing by a pond and saw the head of this dude poking up over the hill. I was able to walk a little closer to get more of his body in the shot, but since I had the dog with me I really couldn't get much closer without spooking him.

Left

Photogamer for this past Sunday: Left. I chose to take a picture of some of my sewing scissors, which are all left-handed. Both in the handle and more importantly in the blade. A lot of manufacturers will make the handle left-handed without rearranging the blade, which is less useful.

Sign

Sign
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for this past Saturday: Take a picture of a sign.

Postcard

Postcard
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for last Friday: Postcard. I though this was appropriate since I just found out that Anne and Karl are going to come down to visit Disney this fall. Woot!

Ball

Ball
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer from last Thursday: Ball. I found this bunch down channel from the tennis facility. There were a lot of waterlogged tennis balls and one big ball with a star on it.

Intro

For my birthday this year I asked for a nice digital camera. I have a really great pocket camera that I got as a hand-me-down from my Mom, but I wanted one that wasn't all about the size. I wanted some more features, increased zoom, better pixel density (my little one is only 3 mp), the ability to manually chance the aperture size and shutter speed. I decided against an DSLR because of the cost and my ability level. Anyway, here is one of the first pictures with my new snazzy camera. Of course the first thing I look to take a picture of is the fuzz-bucket. Isn't he anerable?

Chocolate

Chocolate
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for today: Chocolate. I took a picture of my favorite kind of Hershey's Kiss for today's photogamer...Then I ate it. I thought the wrapper would make a good picture too, and I ended up submitting this one instead.

Half

Half
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for yesterday: Half. I tried taking a picture of half of a Benadryl that was lying on the table (the dog's allergies are really bad at the moment), but it just wasn't turning out. So I turned around and there were the kitchen shears drying by the sink.

Four

Four
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for yesterday: Take a picture of four. I chose to take a picture of my cross stitch book. I'm doing a very large cross stitch for Roland that will hopefully be done sometime this century. There are over 80 symbols for this project, one of which was the number 4.

Looking out a Window

Looking out a Window
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for today: Take a picture looking out a window. This is looking out the weird little window in our small bathroom.

Keys

Keys
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for yesterday: Keys. My favorite is this one.

Square

Square
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer for April 1st: Square

Pincushion

Bleys is officially back in action! We got a pass today to go back to regular activity after his appointment this morning. We are going to do more warming up before running and at least for a while we will be jumping only the lower jump heights. But all in all he should be mended. We are going back in 3 weeks for a checkup, but other than that we are all systems go. Bleys will be delighted since he is getting pretty antsy sitting around the apartment so much.

While we were at our appointment I took a couple of pictures of my favorite pincushion.

Cloud

Cloud
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer: Take a picture of a cloud. Lucky for me I could take this from my balcony.

Power

Power
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer today is power. If you look in the background to the right you will find a blurry dog nosed shaped object. Bleys just had to be involved!

Side by Side

Photogamer yesterday was side by side. I was pretty busy all day yesterday with a sewing project for etsy so I took this one this morning. On the left is a regular sized tennis ball, which is what we started with. But Bleys has trouble getting his mouth around it. Next we went to some mini tennis balls, and finally to the teeny tiny tennis ball at the end.

Revolution

Revolution
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Yesterday there still weren't any challenges from photogamer, so another commenter suggested 'revolution.' I found this one to be difficult.

Red/Green

Photogamer gave us another challenge today! Take a picture of Red/Green. I chose some of my red thread, both regular and embroidery thread with a few bobbins thrown in against the green of the astro turf a previous resident installed on our balcony.

Playing

Recently, my Dad sent me one of his old cameras to play with for a while. It has a lot more features than my current camera, so I was out on the porch today trying to figure out how to change some settings (alas an instruction manual was not included in this loan). Since they were convenient and don't have a tendency to move around a lot I took some pictures of my container plants. This is a nice little Gloxinia bud with some caladium leaves next to it.

Corner

Corner
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer hasn't been providing new prompts lately but someone on the discussion section posted one today. Take a picture of a corner.

Demo

This one was taken a while ago, but I seem to have forgotten to upload it. It was taken by one of the other people on the flyball team at the warm-up for the demo at Happy Tails Park. Bleys didn't actually get to run in the demo because I was doing the talking, but he did get to warm up before hand. Look at those ear flap! This was the day that he tripped over his ear hair a bit and I decided to trim them. I miss those long ears though.

Ret to go

The other day Bleys decided that he wanted to go to work with Roland. After getting ready in the morning he walked into the living room to find this, Bleys was totally already ready already. He was all up in his travel crate waiting to be whisked away to the land of eternal college-girls-who-think
-he-is-adorable-and-aren't-in-a-place-where-they-can-have-
pets-of-their-own. Puppy heaven.

Ever wondered?

Wild flower 1.jpg
Originally uploaded by annethelibrarian

What I looked like when I was younger? Well here is your chance to find out. After my recent snow shoeing trip up in Colorado, my parents dug out some old slides of our family hiking the same trail way back when. Anne uploaded them to her flickr, for everyone to peruse. Here is one of me with a look that says: "Did you take the picture yet?"

Unusual

Unusual
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Today's photogamer was to take a picture of something unusual. I chose this little candle snuffer my Mom gave me.

Photo

Photo
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer: take a photo of a photo. I've been trying to find some ballroom dance classes with not much success. I had a really good time dancing at my wedding (and Roland was a really good sport about humoring me) and I would really like to learn more. Most of the places I've found mostly do private lessons like Arthur Murray, and I totally understand that they way they do things is a really good way to learn. But I can't really see spending that much and would settle for a less efficient class style if it cost a more reasonable amount.

Triangle

Triangle
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer: Take a picture of a triangle. I initially wanted to take a picture of the main roof, but it was really hard to get far enough away to get the triangle-ness of it without also adding in obstructions (trees) that hid said triangles. So instead I took this one of a meter room attached to one of the buildings here.

Nose

Nose
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer: take a picture of a nose. Bleys' nose is way cuter than mine, and much easier to take a picture of.

Where a geek can be a geek.

Roland and I got back from Vegas late on Sunday. It was a great trip and we had a really good time. Jason was already there for a work class thingy, which he apparently passed with a 93% on the certification test. Go Jason. I spent some time playing poker, while Roland and Jason spend a lot of time playing poker. I ended up playing for about 7 hours total I think, and came out even, so that was good. Roland and Jason ended up in the money for at least one tournament each so that was nice for them (I only play limit so no tournaments for me). Plus they had a side bet going on one tournament that whoever got pushed out first had to buy me a caramel apple. This was pretty much a win, win for me so I didn't really mind.

We saw the Cirque du Soleil show O, which was incredible, and walked around seeing the sights. There are a few more pictures over at if you are interested. One of my favorite things was going to the Star Trek Experience and eating at Quark's Bar. We drank some quite a few nifty drinks served in a bowl with dry ice in it for fun smoking effect and chatted with a Klingon for a while. My inner nerd was pleased.

Homemade

Handmade
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Today's photogamer was right up my alley. Take a picture of something homemade. It was hard to pick one thing, but then I decided that I would use my latest idea to sell on etsy. I've only made one of these so far and haven't gotten good pictures of it yet. So it's not up for sale yet, but I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Motion

Motion
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer's mission for the day: Take a picture of something in motion.

Fake

Photogamer for the day: Take a picture of something fake. My first impulse was to take a picture of some fake potatoes. Unfortunately we didn't have any in the house. Roland suggested I take make some mashed cauliflower, but that was little more effort than I was willing to put in. So I went for my fake fur blanket. But any time there is a blanket involved Bleys has to come take a look. So here is some fake fur with some real fur on top.

Teeny-Tiny

Teeny-Tiny
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

I'm trying out that Photogamer thing Anne is participating in. Today's challenge was to take a picture of something teeny-tiny. When Anne and I were kids we called this Lego a Teeny-Tiny so it seemed perfect. And yes, that means that, on a whim, I can successfully locate any particular Lego piece (or build parts of Hogwarts, and a sizable portion of the Star Wars fleet). I am at one with my inner nerd!

Proof

On Monday I left Colorado Springs. It was hard to leave Janice, but I know we will keep chatting and maybe I'll get out there again sooner rather than later. And Bob has family here in Florida, so when they visit again I can take a short drive over to Tampa to see the gang. I drove up to Fort Collins to stay with my Uncle for a short while. He made arrangements for us to go snow shoeing in the mountains on Tuesday. We rented a pair of shoes for me after dinner on Monday so we could just go in the morning. We got a pretty early start and were at the trail head by 10:15 or so. We hiked about 2 miles out and 2 miles back, stopping for lunch along the way. We hiked along a string of three lakes. Nymph, Dream, and Emerald. We actually just walked across Dream instead of any trail. My Mom says that I'd actually been on that trail before when I was a kid. But the fact that it was so long ago and in summer meant that I didn't really recognize anything.

I had a really good time and didn't do too badly given the change in elevation. Now that I live at sea level, being at 10,000 feet and climbing is a bit more of a challenge! More pictures over at flickr.

Swingin'

After a nice dinner with Kate, I arrived at Janice's late on Tuesday and the boys were already in bed. On Wednesday my alarm clock was the unmistakable sound of giggling. Zachary and Ashton are some adorable little guys and I had a lot of fun with them. They really are some awesome little people. On Saturday we started the day by going to Zachary's basketball game. Both he and Ashton are involved in basketball at a youth center at the base.

Ashton's group doesn't play actual games yet, but Zachary does. After the game, lunch, and a nap we headed over to a park to play and ride bikes. I took some pictures there so that Janice could send them to Bob. Here are Zachary and Ashton having a swinging good time. There are more pics of the game and fun in the park over at flickr.

Love story

One of the ladies on the flyball team wasn't able to come up for the whole weekend so she needed someone to drive her dog up so she could meet us there later. I volunteered, and Kimmie, one super cute border collie, spent probably an hour and a half at our place before we took off. She and Bleys had a jolly good time playing while we packed up. There is a whole series of pics over at Flickr. Check them out!

Dash

Well, I'm back from a very quick trip to Michigan. Roland's sister Marcie was married on Saturday. It was a lovely wedding and a hoppin' reception, but I was certainly exhausted when we got back. Roland canceled class on Friday so we could fly up to Detroit where we rented a car and drove over to Muskegon. Then we attended the festivities on Saturday, got a little sleep, and were up early to drive back over to Detroit. We got back here early evening on Sunday. I did take some pictures at the wedding, but didn't get many at the reception because my battery didn't want to hold a charge very well. I guess that is the (very small) down side to getting my Dad's hand-me-down electronics. By the time I get them I probably need to replace the battery.

Although I really like the camera that I'm using, it's really quite small and fits nicely into my pocket for easy carrying, I think I would really like some sort of larger camera that has more features/is more adjustable. I was looking in my local adult education brochure and they have a couple classes that I could take so maybe I could really take some nice photos. One of the other women on the flyball team has a really nice, but older, Nikon that makes me drool.

Pie Disaster

Roland loves Key Lime Pie, so I made him one today...but I don't think he is going to eat any of this one. I was also going to make some soup, but the pie fiasco sort of put a damper on my cooking enthusiasm. We'll see if I get around to it.

Look, they match!

I ended up with a whole lot of stuff I needed to take to the demo so I decided to make myself a little present. I wanted to make it in blue, but the only blue shades I liked were too dark to the Cavalier embroidery to show up. So I went with navy-red, in a nice micro-suede. It's quite roomy, and I thought it turned out nicely. The only thing I don't really like this that when it's empty it's a little bit floppy for my liking. I used the stiffest interfacing I could find, but what I really need is a specialty interfacing that is a bit expensive and I would have to order online. But seriously isn't that puppy just adorable?

Sketch

Drawing of Bleys
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

One bonus of being at the festival all day was that I got a chance to get this sweet picture of Bleys. A dude was drawing them for free (although he did accept tips). I wish I could sit down and put pencil to paper and have it come out looking like this!

Craftyland

It's been quite a while since I did anything with this here blog. I somehow got myself into a bunch of projects that all came due at the same time. It's mostly because of a demonstration that the flyball team I take classes from was doing. The park that allows them to practice there every week was having a doggy festival thingy and asked the Storm Riders to put on a little demo, showing people what flyball is about.

Apparently no one wanted to do the talking so I said I would. Somehow that turned into me organizing a lot of it. So I went all teacher on it and planned it to within an inch of it's life. The demo was right in the middle of the day, and we had a booth all day long at the festival. For those people who weren't there during that actual demo I made up a little display board that explains a little about flyball and has some pictures of the Storm Riders. Then I made up a facebook with all the team dogs getting a page with their info and some pictures, including one of them with their person. I thought it turned out really well! I wasn't sure how scrapbook people do lettering so I embroidered it on a length of ribbon with metallic thread. I originally wanted blue ribbon, but I couldn't find anywhere that had enough of it. So I settled for black instead. Hopefully it doesn't look too weird. I also made up some brochures and some business sized cards for people to take from the table.

I really struggled to get everything done by the day of the demo (which was yesterday), but it all went fine. A lot of that is thanks to Roland who was hugely supportive and helped me a million. The actual demo part was a little difficult because the microphone was corded and I could really see the flyball team from where I was standing. This made it hard to tell which team won the races we were running. Roland sort of stood at the edge where he could see the demo and I could see him and he used hand signals to let me know what was going on. Not the smoothest operation, but such is life. Anyhow, the demo is over now and I'm exhausted. I think I got way too much sun and didn't drink enough water or something.

Jumping to Digital

I couldn't resist trying again with my digital camera while I was at the dog park today.

Jumping

I had a few pictures left over on the cheap film camera so when I took Bleys to the dog park I tried to use them up. I ended up with some not so great ones, and then this one that made we wish I had taken my digital camera with me. Or that I had whatever camera my fellow flyballer Andrea has. She took some really nice portraits of the flyball dogs. You should totally check them out here.

A new experience

Another thing we tried out while my parents were visiting was snuba. We didn't wear BCs or have tanks on us. The air was kept at the surface and we were connected to it via long hoses. My parents aren't divers, so we kind of wanted to try something that we all could do. Unfortunately, what I didn't know at the time was they only were going to take down two people at a time anyhow, and do the other two on the second location. So I would have been better off just diving so I could take more pictures of everything. Oh well, at least I got to try diving while only wearing a wetsuit. I found it less enjoyable than actual diving, but a good experience anyhow. My snorkeling at the second reef was marred by a jellyfish incident (they were everywhere that day), but I carry vinegar in my save-a-dive pack so it stopped stinging by the time we got back to shore.

Kayaking

After Christmas and Roland's Birthday my parents flew down for a visit. They stayed over the new year and we spent a few days having fun in the sun down in the Keys. The weather was much warmer than usual allowing us to partake in some Florida activities that would otherwise have been quite chilly. We were originally going to stay in Key Largo again, but one of my Dad's coworkers suggested Marathon. I'm certainly glad he did. I really enjoyed staying there and in the future will probably push to stay there again. It is centrally located being on Key Vaca allowing for day trips both up to Key Largo and down to Key West. We didn't make it up to Key Largo this time (except to visit the Key Lime Products store on the way back up to Fort Lauderdale) but we did go down to Key West for an afternoon.

One of my favorite excursions was to go kayaking. We even ended up taking Bleys! He wasn't too sure about the whole operation but I think we did pretty well since I'd never been in a kayak before and we managed not to tip over at all. Here is a picture of us in the foreground and my parents in the background. We bought one of those cheapy underwater cameras that uses film so they aren't the best, but it was at least something to preserve the memories. I think if my parents make noises about coming down again I may find a way to spring for an underwater digital camera. They have some that aren't too atrociously expensive and I think the quality would be greatly enhanced.

Yet another sleeping picture

You may wonder why so many of my pictures of Bleys are of him sleeping. I think it is partly because he is so completely anerable when he is tired, and part of it is that way he isn't moving so I'm more likely to get a good picture.

Avocadzilla

While visiting with Kala (the Cavalier breeder) it came up that they had an avocado tree with a whole lot of avocados on it. Just about ripe too. Turns out that Kala doesn't like avocados though, would we like to take a couple home? Sure, my mom is coming for a visit and she loves guacamole. What we didn't realize is that apparently here in Florida they are slightly larger than we are used to seeing in Michigan. What are we going to do with four of these behemoths?

A mess of Cavaliers

A while ago I mentioned going to a Holiday party for the Boca Raton Dog Club. It was a very nice time, albeit a little on the loud side as it was held in an old train depot. While there I met a very nice woman who breeds Cavaliers. She invited us over to for a play date sometime. Since January is apparently very busy with her show schedule we made arrangements to meet today. She has a nice house a bit north of here with a large (for around here) fenced in yard. We had a very nice time and Bleys really seemed to enjoy the company of this own kind of dog. Here a some of the pictures I took while we were there.

Endo

Ever wondered what the inside of a cranberry looked like? I didn't...until I was cutting some up to make Roland some cranberry bread (which turned out pretty well).

Asnorable

On the way back from Clearwater yesterday Bleys was in the back seat. We are very lucky because he doesn't mind riding in the car at all. In fact mostly it just makes him sleepy.

I do believe I'm getting tired.

It's gets so hard to keep my eyes open.

I think I'll just rest my head...

And take a little bitty nap.

Pier 60

This weekend we made a little trip over to Clearwater to meet up with Roland's Grandparents. His dad had just driven them down for their yearly stay in Florida. By going over now he got to see both his Grandparents and his Dad at the same time. And to be honest we haven't been over there to see their trailer yet so it was probably about time. It was a long drive with some not very fun parts as it decided to pour rain for a while and there was also quite a bit of traffic at the end that was a little stressful. But we got there just fine and went out for a little walk on a nearby pier and grabbed some dinner. As an added bonus we drove right past the headquarters of Scientology, which Roland found particularly thrilling.

While we were on the pier I managed to take some pictures. I've noticed that Roland's families pictures are almost entirely of people all lined up in a row smiling at the wrong camera. So I tried to take some when people didn't know it, or weren't expecting it, so they didn't have time to line up. The first is a picture of Grandma Rosemary taking a little break on one of the benches along the pier. I'm pretty sure she didn't have any idea I was taking pictures at all.

The second picture is probably my favorite. I like the three generations thing and I sort of caught them off guard, giving them just enough warning to get them to smile (which they all did!). I really like how it turned out. Although I think I might crop it a bit and get rid of a little Roland's arm.

Third is another picture of this handsome fella with the monochrome filter. This was actually a practice shot, I was trying to sneak around Roland a bit so I could get a shot of him, his father, and his Grandfather who were all in a row leaning on the railing and looking out at the ocean, but I just wasn't fast enough and they started to walk away.

Therapizing the masses

Last Thursday I participated in a Yuletide parade representing the Humane Society of Broward County Pet Therapy Pack. I wasn't sure exactly what that would mean, but they needed teams and it sounded like it might be fun. It turns out we just walked along the parade route as a group and let some of the people pet our dogs and generally let people know about what pet therapy is about. Roland was nice enough to come along and take pictures. An easy request, or so I thought. Unfortunately by the time our group actually got to being part of the parade it was full dark. Being a trooper he still took a bunch of pictures in hopes that some of them would turn out.

Here we are waiting for the parade to get a move on. The lady in the front was from the group in front of us, a Police Bagpipe and Drum Corps. They were pretty cool to listen to seeing as how we were outside so the volume of the pipes wasn't offensive.

On the left is one of the other teams that walked in the parade with us, Patrice (leaning over) and Max (lying regally at her feet). I originally met Patrice and Max during our training and certification at the humane society class. Max is a beautiful Briard and they also go to the Renfrew center, which is where Bleys and I go.

On the right are Bleys and I, waiting with a cute Rottweiler mix (check out the other pics on Flickr for a picture where this Rottweiler mix has some seriously intense eye-glare). Isn't Bleys resplendent in his tiny green vest? There are a couple more shots that I liked over on my Flickr account, but I kind of been feeling like I've been over doing it on the pictures lately so I will leave off here.

Tofoodles

Is everybody ready to try something new?

I was on my own for dinner tonight as Roland is giving his ethics final exam. I decided to go over to Publix and pick up some vegetables and stuff for a stir fry. While I was perusing the produce section, which is where they also keep a lot of their vegetarian stuff, I saw these Tofu Shirataki "Spaghetti Shaped Noodle Substitute." It's on baby! I mean "noodle substitute" doesn't necessarily bode all that well (smacks a little of cheese food product), but I'm up for an experience. Mostly I think people want them if they are vegan, or if they aren't supposed to have cholesterol or starchy things for some reason, none of which really apply to me.

They are simple and fast to prepare, but the real test is the taste right? I thought they were pretty good, I mean they aren't noodles and they do have a slightly different mouth feel. But overall they are something I would eat again.

Go on, get crafty!

I'm going to a Holiday dinner for the Boca Raton Dog Club and they are having a gift thing. So I needed something dog related (either for a dog, or for a dog loving human) that was under $25. I decided that I would make something and it would most likely be cheaper. Plus I like making things. I opted for this shoulder tote with Scottish Terrier embroidery. I chose this design because of all the canine choices that fit in my hoop, this one was on sale (only $1) and I already had colors of thread that would work. It only has three colors in it: black, dark gray, and light gray. If I had unlimited funds I would prefer that the dark gray was darker, but cheap won out. All of the fabrics I chose were on sale, and not very expensive to begin with, so all told I think I spent $13.

We're taking on water

Alright, this post is going to be picture heavy, because I think my dog is pretty darn cute. Yeah I'm totally biased. While I was gone Roland was awesome and took Bleys to that Splash Adventure thing again and took some great pictures. He had my old camera, which has quite the shutter lag, so it was a little frustrating, but a lot of the pictures turned out really well. We went last year (at a different park) and had a great time. We were at Disney when they did the dog day at the park we went to last year so Roland had to drive a bit longer this time, but it

sounds like a fun time was had by all.

In the first picture, which is much easier to see in the large version over on Flickr, Bleys has three - count them three- tennis balls he is sort of corralling and trying to decide which to bring. At this point he seems to be leaning toward the largest one, which clearly he could never fit in his mouth. But, I guess we should all dream big!

They don't allow you to bring your own toys and they didn't have any small balls, so Bleys ended up settling for a regular sized tennis ball. Still way to big for him, it's hard for him to get it in his mouth. But he will go after it over and over again, until exhausted. When he is swimming he looks much bigger than he really is because all his fur floats out. He looks downright chubby here!

Some of the sporting breed must be left in the Cavalier because I think Bleys likes to have a job to do. I don't suppose his job is to empty the pool of water by carrying it out one coat-full at a time, but he's going to make a go of it. Boy does that little dog soak up a lot of moisture!

Just look at that concentration, this dog is on a mission.

And last, but not least, is my personal favorite. The situation where the dog is soaking wet and looks up at you like he is saying:

"Want a hug?"

Plus, Roland got the added bonus of catching him mid-lick. What a cute little drowned rat! I love him even if much all of his majesty is lost when he gets wet.

Stay

While I was in Big Rapids I also got a chance to visit with the Grants. Susan and my Mom are good friends, she is a local judge and Don is retired. In college I used to house sit for them while they went on vacation in the summer, tending to their dogs (at the time two corgis) and keeping an eye on the joint. A number of years later, while I was working for the Humane Society of Kent County, they were looking for a dog to add to their family (they also have a retired greyhound named Maggie) and I found Bailey for them. Now they have a third rescue named Guinney (which she pronounces like Gwinny). Here is a picture of the two little ones, with Bailey on the left and Guinney on the right. It isn't the best picture ever, but as Don said, taking a picture of the two of them is like herding cats. Guinney has some issues to overcome, I think she was an entirely outdoor dog and consequently has very little idea about what humans are about. But she sure is cute!

Home

Speaking of my parents house, here is a picture I took of it...this was one of the reasons I had so much snow on my shoes in the previous post. They recently had new windows installed and the whole exterior of the house repainted. The color is very similar to what they had before, but there is a little less yellow in it. I was ready to be skeptical, but I like it better than what was there before. They also had their deck redone in that not-wood-but-looks-like-wood stuff. It looks a little different now, as they did away with the built in bench, but other than that it is very similar to the old one. It looks very nice, but visiting in the winter meant that I didn't spend a lot of time enjoying it.

I pretty much just walked across it to get to the wood shed for fuel for the fire.

Now that I think about it my parents are redoing a lot of stuff about the house. But I suppose they didn't really do much to the house for so long that many things needed attending to. I think this was the first time they had repainted since the house was built 30+ years ago. The deck was only slight younger (and was getting a little unsafe, with rotting boards), and some of the interior did scream 70's decor. Before they redid the kitchen awhile ago, we did, in fact, have Brady Bunch orange counters.

Where's that propane torch?

After visiting for while in North Muskegon, my Mom came over and drove me back to Big Rapids. It was really nice to go home. Although I don't have my room anymore (my Mom made it into a really neat library/den) my sister and I are rarely at home at the same time so we sort of time share what was her room. My parents are in the process of making choices about how to remodel their bathroom, flooring, vanity, fixtures. And I got to add in my opinion. I think what they have chosen will look really nice and be very different from what they have now (which is a good thing - this bathroom hasn't been touched in over 30 years). As a bit of a bonus not long after I arrived it snowed! Not a lot, but more came later. Although what came later was more of a sleet so that wasn't nearly as fun.

There were a couple of days where I was home alone for the day while my parents were working and I wasn't driving to visit anyone. Since it was conveniently snowy and cold outside and there was this fireplace all handy, I took the opportunity to have a couple of all day fires. My Dad has a nice wood shed out behind the garage and apparently they haven't been having very many fires because it's on the full side. I used up a bit of it, but I didn't really make a dent in the total. There is just something about a fire...and maybe a cup of cocoa along with it. It was so nice to light it and sit in front of it all day doing a puzzle. Very comforting.

Velveeeeta

Another evening I was in North Muskegon Ryan and Laura drafted Ryan's mother to babysit Jackson, and Jason was totally awesome and drove up from Kalamazoo. We went out for dinner to at the BLT (where they have the largest crab legs I've ever laid eyes on), and then went back to the Wiles' house. We enjoyed some margaritas and played a couple rounds of Spite and Malice. Ryan was super fantastic and kept a fire going for a long time, which Laura and I really liked.

Here you can see Ryan, Jason, and Laura (after some beverages) while we partake in some Euchre playing fun. And get this, Jason and I actually won one game (perhaps Ryan and Laura were just taking it easy on us?). It was so nice to hang out with my friends, but it makes me appreciate how much I miss them now that I am back in Florida.

Cookie!

Another good thing about staying in North Muskegon is that Ryan and Laura live there now. They have a very nice house not too far from the Clevelands...although, if two people both live in North Muskegon, then no matter what they aren't too far from each other. Anyway, one evening while I was in there Mrs. Cleveland let me borrow her car and Ryan, Laura, Jackson and I all went out to dinner. It was quite an adventure and afterwards, we went over to a place called the Grand Traverse Pie Company. This place wasn't there when I lived there, and what a shame. All those desserts! Laura went for some pie, while Jackson picked a sugar cookie, and Ryan and I opted for chocolate chip cookies. I don't know about the pie or the sugar cookie, but the chocolate chip cookie was delicious. It was a lovely evening and Jackson was very patient when dinner took much longer than expected and he was still adjusting to the time change. He is also in a stage where he talks pretty much non-stop. You don't really even have to be listening, he will just keep on going. And some of the stuff he says is pretty hilarious. All in all an adorable 3 year old. There is another picture of Jackson and one of the Wiles' cat, Adventure in my Flickr account.

A little later Jackson was getting ready for bed and I caught Laura unaware with the monochrome filter. I'm not sure what she's thinking about, and the picture quality isn't the best, but I like this shot. Probably because Laura is always such a bubbly and fun person it is interesting to see her both in a quiet moment and without color.

There is one big down side to visiting with Laura, I remember just how much I miss her.

Snuggler

Here is a picture of my niece Mila. I took this while I was up in Michigan and staying at the Cleveland abode. Here she is snuggling with Mrs. Cleveland, isn't she adorable? Marcie is just waiting for her hair to grow in a bit so that she looks more clearly female, but I think she's super cute. She is only 9 months and already cruising around the house. But her legs aren't quite ready to hold her up yet so she takes a lot of spills. She seems to take them in stride though, maybe it's all the padding from the diaper.

Whimsy

While we were at Disney I discovered a few more things to play with on my camera and one of them is a monochrome filter. So I took some pictures with it while we were there. When I was looking at them today to decide which one to put in my blog post I decided on this one. Part of that decision is probably because I miss him a great deal right now. It just doesn't seem fair that either I have to miss my family and friends, or I have to miss Roland. *pout* Anyway, here he is waiting for a motor coach back to our hotel at Epcot.

Thus ends the great Food and Wine Festival epic of aught seven.

Your Kerrygold, Sir

About half way through our vacation Roland's parents came down for a visit of their own. They stayed on after we left so the days where we were both there we got together. They flew in late one afternoon and got to their room around 7:30 or so, I think. Then they came over to MGM , where we had told them we were visiting that day and we actually ran into them in the street! I guess that's why it's handy to have a husband who is over 6 foot and has red hair. Pretty easy to pick him out of a crowd. Although this is also the reason why when ever there is a show that involves volunteers from the audience my husband disappears. Suddenly and without explanation. Anyhow, the first full day they were there we went over to the Food and Wine Festival again and tried some more food. In this picture Roland's mom is holding a packet of Irish butter so he can spread it on his bread. She said it had been a while since she had to do something like that for Roland :)

The next day we headed over to the Magic Kingdom and I actually managed to get a decent picture of the castle when there weren't too many people in front of it. I thought it turned out pretty well. There is a bit of a shadow on the lower half of the castle, but all in all, quite satisfactory.

Giraffe

This was one of the pictures I took on the safari ride at the Animal Kingdom (check out my flickr account for a few more). We actually saw more animals this time than any other time we have been at Disney. I guess Jason was a good luck charm! It also helps that it was starting to get cooler in the day time so the animals didn't have to hightail it back to the shade quite so early in the day. I especially liked this one of a baby giraffe. I tried to take it when you could quite see the Disney cheating, but if you look at the tree you can sort of still see where there is a feeding trough attached to the back of the trunk.

Green Archer needs food badly

One of our evenings was spent over at Downtown Disney. I think it was the day we spent in the Magic Kingdom. There are only a few places at the Magic Kingdom that we would choose to eat for dinner and one of them was where we had lunch and the other is seasonally closed. Most of the other places aren't terribly remarkable or have gone to character dinners that we try to avoid if possible. They tend to have way more kids around and be buffet style.

Anyhow, we arrived about 15 minutes before we were supposed to be at Raglan Road (our Downtown Disney restaurant of choice) so we meandered over to the arcade that was across the way from the restaurant. And low and behold we found this...Gauntlet: Legends. My all time favorite video game. I actually have this game for the PS2, but they changed it a bunch from this arcade game so I don't like it nearly as much. The next one they put out, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, is far more like the arcade version of Legends and hence far better. Upon spying this gem tucked away in the back of the arcade I made everyone play with me. Being Downtown Disney the machine took quarters, which was nice because we didn't have to go get tokens anywhere. It was a blast, but alas, before long we had to get on over for our dinner, but man was that a good time. It was especially nice because Roland and Jason are the ones who I used to play this game with in the first place.

As I mentioned our dinner was at Raglan Road. A seriously fine Irish Pub. When we have been there before it has been too early for the live entertainment so this time we specifically set a time that was late enough to catch the band and Irish dancer. And both were outstanding! We got seated directly in front of the band and I was a little worried about the volume, but it wasn't a problem at all. The Irish dancer danced very well and had a lot of single guy admirers (some of whom had a few beers under their belts I'm sure). Ragland Road has two beer flights and Roland got one while and Jason opted for the other. Then they decided that they each wanted another so they switched. For dinner I got the Guiness Stew, which was really quite good. Dessert was some bread pudding with two drizzling sauces. I think Jason like the sauces better than the pudding and after the pudding was gone ate all the rest of the left over sauces by themselves. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

Please stand clear of the doors

Another day at Disney World we went over to the Magic Kingdom. Apparently Jason had to conquer Space Mountain after a harrowing experience with it a couple of decades ago. He aquitted himself well, and also rode the other two mountains. Here you can see Roland and the back half of Jason's head (sorry about that dude) in the second row of the coaster. I didn't particulaly wan't to ride this one at the time, and this roller coaster happens to have a sweet picture taking spot. It's at the very end of the ride and the train is heading into the ending depot, but the track is designed so that if you watch you can identify which train your party is in and then be ready for a picture when they come back around. I'm not sure they did it that way on purpose, but given the thought they put into everything else at Disney, I'd have to guess that would be a yes.

After Splash Mountain we found were a bit wet (some more than others, sorry J) so we spent about a half an hour drying off. The place we found to dry off used to have tables in it, but they have since disappeared. On the up side it was right next to the Dole Whip joint so Roland and Jason both indulged in a Dole Whip Float. Over in Tomorrowland we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger spin and Jason tore it up! He always has been good at those shooting games. Apparently they are building a similar ride over at MGM with the other characters of Toy Story. I'm under the impression that it will be more along the lines of old school midway games rather than space themed blasters though. In other MGM news apparently they are going to be changing the name of it? I still find it hard to believe, but they are going to change it to Disney's Hollywood or something like that. Wierd.

On a silly note, on the monorail they repeat this phase (after the English version) at every stop. So even people who don't know Spanish, like Roland and I, get to know it pretty well. Roland has been saying it for a long time now at totally random times and places. Apparently he is not alone because now they have a t-shirt with it on it! I thought it was very funny, so I took a picture of it. The other wierd thing about it is that the voice on the monorail sounds a lot like Phil Hartman.

Aperitif

I think our vacation with Jason can be officially reported as a success. Every time we go somewhere with Jason I am reminded how vacationally compatible we are. We seem to move at the same pace and enjoy the same things. I just hope Jason feels the same! We had a lovely time wandering around enjoying good food and wine and not feeling the need to be on the go all the time and seeing every last ounce of Disney.

We started at Epcot this time. Usually when we have new people with us we like to start at the Magic Kingdom because that is the epitome of Disney. However, since we were all about the Food and Wine Festival this time we made an exception and started at Epcot. Pictured above, Jason bravely tries the Beverly, one of the interesting sodas of the world available at what used to be called Ice Station Cool. Then we moved on to the World Showcase and started eating our way around the world. It was very nice and the food was great. We also tried some interesting wines/drinks from other countries. I got to try some of the ice wine this year. I liked it, but I don't think we will be shelling out the money for any!

We were able to watch the candy lady in Japan, which is one of my favorite activities. And, thanks to Roland I was lucky enough to get a hummingbird from her. We also saw some of the bands around the world, including MoRockin' (I think Jason enjoyed the belly dancer), the British Invasion, and Off Kilter. I made everyone stop for a show with the Voices of Liberty too. Since Jason is a diver, we made arrangements for all of us to dive in the Living Seas. It was awesome, and neat to be able to show Jason. I think he agrees that the best part is playing with the people! Although many of the kids are a little freaked out when you come up to them. We were pretty lucky and the wildlife was fairly active while we were diving. A green sea turtle swam right up to us and gave Jason a good looking-over. After that it was over to the Rose and Crown for dinner. Roland and Jason both had the fish and chips (and I snitched a bit) and a beer flight. Add the Illuminations show and sticky toffee pudding for dessert and it was a wonderful evening.

New Shoes

I went on a mission today. I wanted some shoes that would dress up jeans more than sneakers, but still be comfortable to walk around in. I looked a lot of places and finally found some Naturalizers at DSW that fit well. They have a little bit of a heel, but they are wedges (thanks for the suggestion, Anne) so that sort of evens out. As one of our Food and Wine Festival extravaganza Roland, Jason, and I are going to dinner one night at Todd English's Blue Zoo so I think I will wear them then. The dress is supposed to be business casual so I think these will be perfect.

On the way to flyball

Bleys and Jubilee on the way to flyball practice this morning. Jubilee did awesome, as expected. She didn't care who she ran for, Derek, me, whoever. As long as there was a ball involved she was fine. Bleys did all right as well. He still gets a little spooked when a dog is coming off the lane and he is supposed to go on it. And he still doesn't grok that it would be great if he actually caught the ball from the box, but it's going well anyway. I think they both had a good time.

Roland was nice enough to join me this morning to help wrangle both dogs and crates and whatnot. It was nice to have him there, but it is very early, so I'm not sure how often it will happen. Oh, and there are a couple other pictures of these two on the way to practice in my Flickr account if you are interested.