Hi everyone.
My apologies for the disappearing act, as I haven’t actually fallen off the planet. Life has been a little crazy in the last couple of months. We had an unexpected house guest that threw everything a bit out of orbit, however, I think that issue has been resolved and will hopefully not arise again.
Buster has also been insanely busy with his job in preparation for the promotion he will be receiving in the next week or so. Congrats to my amazing, endlessly hard-working husband!! His first step into management after 4 years with Pepsi, in spite of being laid off in the first year due to the bad economy. I know they are glad they hired him back!!
He also directed a disc golf tournament which basically hijacked his life for several weeks, and an entire weekend. On top of all that, he was out of town for a week to visit family back in NY, which led to a perfect storm of crazy for me. My good friend Lara also got the job she’s wanted for many, many months, which required a week of training in California. This just happened to coincide with Buster being gone, and given that I had promised her my house and dog sitting services, left me in the care of eight dogs between two houses, with one corgi who does not play nicely with others. This resulted in me shuffling the collies back and forth between houses, feeding and pottying dogs between the two places, sleeping in one place and running to the other before and after work, etc. It was interesting to say the least. And on top of THAT, my good friend Amanda came to visit for a couple of days during the same week! I also volunteered my services to pick up and drop off people at the airport, so between Lara, Buster, and Amanda, the airport was my second home. There were also terrible delays due to weather, which left poor Amanda stuck traveling for 30hrs straight, and Lara waiting hours for luggage. I spent LOTS of time in the courtesy waiting lot. All in all, everyone survived and got where they were supposed to go, Trudy and Xander had a BLAST with their buddies at Aunt Lara’s house, and I finally got to sleep when Lara and Buster came home.
The very next weekend, Buster’s old, dear friend Jeff came to visit from Boston. In order to show him a great time, Lara got dog sitting duty for the weekend and we took off for a short but fun filled trip to Universal Studios. It was nearly two years since Buster had proposed to me there, so Mardi Gras was again in full swing. We saw Pat Benatar this time, and I must say, that old gal still rocks it out! She was celebrating her 31st wedding anniversary with her guitarist husband, which is inspirational for anyone, let alone a rock star.
We drank, rode coasters, ate good food, watched some March Madness, and overall had a great time. And then we were BACK at the airport to drop him off on Sunday evening. I hope I am done with airports for a while....And poor Buster will finally have a weekend off this weekend after a long stretch of work, family, traveling, entertaining, and tournament directing! I know I will be happy to have a little more calm around the house, although with Trudy around, that is a joke.
Speaking of Trudy, she has decided she loves anything plastic, which is a great thing when it comes to catching a Frisbee, but not so great when we leave things on counters, etc. She is a holy terror when it comes to counter surfing, but she has really turned onto the disc and is showing some amazing style! She drives the other dogs (and sometimes us) nuts, but she’s just so damn cute, it is impossible to be annoyed with her for long. She is now about 8.5 months old and close to 30lbs. She ended up growing more than we expected, and is actually within an inch or two of Xander, although she is 8-10lbs lighter. She’s is as acrobatic as a cat and loves to perch on the back of furniture, and can jump to about my eye level! Crazy girl. Xander seems so calm now in comparison….
I must finally admit that I came to a point around the middle of February when I felt BURNT OUT on agility. I actually skipped a couple of trials (including my own home trial) and did not miss it. I think the combination of craziness that was going on all conspired to this, but it is nice to step away and take a break sometimes. I think we will continue to save money and rest for a few months, and look at how we feel in the fall. I am very satisfied with Xander’s ADCH, and at the moment don’t feel a driving need to compete. I know myself though, and that will not last forever…
Wait, what did I say about Xander being calm? Through Trudy, he has discovered an old toy that has been ignored for years, a blue football that makes incredibly loud and annoying noises. He is currently OBSESSED with it. I have not seen him this way with anything other than a disc. As we speak, he is throwing it at me again, and has been doing so since I came home several hours ago. Trudy, meanwhile, is shredding the shrubbery she managed to drag through the dog door and barking at Kaylee whenever the poor old girl shows a passing interest in one of the leaves. Never a dull moment around here...
