No, my dogs don't beg

Max says, I'm just quality assurance, here to ensure that no morsel of lasagna is dropped.
Stan says, yeah yeah me too.
Stanley is quite the naptime snuggler.
If a bit of a restless sleeper.
Grrrrrr! Damn rain cancelled agility AGAIN!


And to top it all off, the Infodog site is down altogether now, so I can no longer obsessively refresh!

*Refresh*Refresh*Refresh*

When oh when will Infodog post the breed counts for the show in San Jose that closed yesterday? Will there be points for beardies or not?

In other news, if the rain holds off long enough, Stanley might finally start agility class tonight!

Best of Breed

On Saturday we went to the USDAA agility trial in Santa Rosa. Max had a lovely Masters Jumpers run and a nice Masters Pairs run. Stanley had to walk around the trial in his boots to keep his feet spotless for the following day.

Little Lord Stanley had quite the big day at the show on Sunday. At the Golden Gate Kennel Club benched show, Stan took Winners Dog (for 1 point) and Best of Breed over a special (for an additional point). Suffice it to say, I was in shock. The little man showed like a superstar though - free-stacked beautifully and was behaved on the move. I can't wait to see his win photo!

We went on to the herding group and puppy herding group, only had to wait 8 more hours for those! I didn't expect anything there. Funny though, the show superintendent screwed something up, as Infodog.com shows Stan as taking a Group 3. Ha!

Awwwwww

It's been a while since I looked at Caroline's photography blog. I can't believe we did engagement photos almost a year ago. Stan was just barely born. I remember how hot it was that day...sure wish it would warm up here!

Links to our pictures:

http://tinywater.blogspot.com/2007/04/molly-jeff.html

http://tinywater.blogspot.com/2007/04/more-molly-jeff.html

Today is the start of training

OK, I took a week off to get over the whole marathon thing, physically and mentally. Today it's time to get back on the horse, work on the training plan, and prepare for the year ahead.

My big goals for the year:
* Set a new 5K and half-marathon PR
* Do my first century (100-mile bike ride), Olympic-distance triathlon, and 1/2-Iron distance triathlon

To start off, I'm going to focus on (a) eating right and tracking my food - nutrition has not been my strong point this winter (b) swimming and biking 3x a week each and (c) running 5x a week and incorporating more speedwork.

This will be especially fun to fit in with our upcoming agility and conformation schedule. Baby Stan is going to be a busy show dog in February and March!

No, it's not wet out, why do you ask?

Little rainstorm today. The boys enjoyed a good run at the high school.
I'll just hang out here...please don't blow dry me!
I like the bed too. Why'd you put this cover down over the comforter?
Can we go play in the rain some more?
Good night all.

Another agility weekend is OVER

The beardies rocked!!!!
We had a very good time trialing in Santa Rosa this weekend. Max picked up 8 more points towards his MACH. We have 34 points to go.
Max's sister Maude (Stan's mom!) had a fantastic trial and got her 2nd legs in Open Standard and Open Jumpers.

Max's little sister Mary, in her very first trial, got her first Novice Jumpers leg!


In the meantime, Stanley had a very good time playing with his sister Beatrix.

Aww, what a sweet guy.

The End!

Any excuse for new pictures

We've gotten a lot of rain in northern California lately. Some dogs are good and stay warm and dry inside.

Stan's feet haven't been drying out well enough and got itchy. I caught him chewing this morning, so he got a full bath and cleanup. Might as well show off how gorgeous he is looking while we are at it.

This first one is his "look at the torture I have to endure" face.

That coat is sure growing!!!

Awwwwwww

The little man is quite the heartbreaker already.

That's all for now!

Bounce

Yes, beardies do bounce.

Back to the fun again

Tonight, unless a natural disaster occurs, we will have agility class for the first time in 6 weeks! Thanks to Christmas and New Years falling on Tuesdays, plus 3 weeks of rainy Tuesday, we've been out since early December. Max will be so thrilled to get on with work again.

Some days you are the windshield

and some days you are the bug. Welcome to my abbreviated report on running the marathon at Rock n Roll Arizona yesterday.

I'll give you the barebones and let you form the mental picture. Heat. Side stitches. Stomach cramps. Nausea. Vomiting. And that was just the first 8 miles! Still to come were muscle cramps and back pain. Oh and that great part where my belly looked the size of a watermelon because my stomach stopped processing liquids.

In that context, coming in 39 minutes over my goal time doesn't sound so bad, does it? I did such a nice textbook taper and felt so good...I really don't know what happened. If I'd run this distance 3 weeks ago the day I did the 20-miler, I'd have had no problem.

I walked, I ran, I hobbled, I trotted, I walked some more, but I finished the damn thing. I wasn't going to let that get away from me.

Oh well. It's no big deal. It's just a race. The months that went into training and all the good runs I had are the part to be proud of anyway. Now it's time to work on new goals for the new year!

Beginnings...

Welcome to our brand-new blog. We consist of Max, a 5-year-old bearded collie, Stanley, a 10-month-old bearded collie, and their slightly hyperactive pet human, who never seems to have enough to do. There's also the other pet human and his 5-year-old saint bernard, Cujo, who might make appearances around here. We all live in San Jose, California and occupy ourselves in a wide variety of activities including dog agility, hiking and backpacking, running and triathlon.